Lhe town hall of Paris decided, this Thursday, February 17, to postpone, from 2022 to 2024, the ban on transit car traffic in the center of the capital. The municipality wants to “take the time” for a public inquiry. In this limited traffic zone (ZTL), renamed “peaceful zone”, it is planned to limit traffic, by reserving circulation to certain categories of vehicles.
David Belliard, deputy (EELV) for the transformation of the public space of PS mayor Anne Hidalgo, specified that in 2024 the ban would not concern local residents, shopkeepers, people with reduced mobility, employees or people “going at the theater or with friends”, nor emergency vehicles, buses, bicycles, taxis and VTC or car-sharing vehicles. The acceptance of passenger vehicles with driver (VTC) within this “peaceful zone” will be conditional on a “commitment of the profession to the greening of the fleet”, underlined David Belliard. Motorcycles and scooters will be accepted on the same principle: you will have to have “something to do in the area” to be able to circulate there, said the environmentalist assistant.
The area concerned is all of the first four arrondissements of Paris and parts of the 5and6and and 7and arrondissements located between Boulevard Saint-Germain and the Seine. “Anyone in the world can come to the center of Paris to do their shopping there”, thus illustrated the first deputy (PS) Emmanuel Grégoire. But the town hall does not want “more transit traffic, which represents about 50% of the traffic in the area, to have only destination traffic”, underlined David Belliard.
Launch of a study
Prior to the public inquiry launched at the end of 2022 or the beginning of 2023, the town hall will conduct an impact study which will be completed by the police headquarters, said the first deputy (PS) Emmanuel Grégoire. The town hall wanted to “extend the calendar for the benefit of legal robustness”, he justified to explain the postponement of one of the flagship projects of Anne Hidalgo’s second term. This “peaceful zone”, which must be ready for the Olympic Games, must make it possible to “fight against air pollution and noise pollution linked to car traffic”, to make the traffic of bicycles, pedestrians and authorized vehicles more fluid , and to strengthen the “attractiveness” of the heart of the capital, underlined Emmanuel Grégoire.
